One month to the day the that the CBS blackout on Time Warner Cable began, it is over.

The two sides have reached an agreeement and CBS programming will resume on affected Time Warner Systems by 6PM ET today, 9/2

More details as they become available!

Updates will be posted as they become available. For those of you affected by the blackout, please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions in this thread.

Links are provided at the bottom of this post for both show discussion & live streams(based on the Eastern Time Zone start)

Updates:

1) 7/23 5:16PM ET - The deadline has been extended till 9am EDT Thursday. But this would still mean no Live Eviction Episode on CBS in these markets

2) 7/24 9:04PM ET - As of right now it doesn't look like an agreement will be reached to prevent CBS from being blacked-out on the Time Warner Systems in question. If CBS is blacked out in your area, don't forget we will have a link for the Live Eviction Episode Stream.

3) 7/25 3:38AM ET - CBS & Time Warner have reached another extension ... "Both parties have agreed to an extension through Monday, July 29 at 5 p.m" So it appears for right now Thursday's Eviction and Sunday's episodes of Big Brother will be watchable on CBS for Time Warner Customers. Beyond that remains in the air.

4) 7/25 4:19PM ET - In a less publicized dispute viewers of KMTV (CBS) in Omaha, Neb. on the Time Warner owned cable system, lost their CBS network of Midnight.

5) 7/29 3:36PM ET - Both sides are still at the table, but as of right now no agreement has been reached. If no agreement or extension is reached by 5PM EDT, today CBS stations on Time Warner will go dark in New York, Dallas-Forth Worth, and LA.

6) 7/29 5:20PM ET - Could a deal be close? But sides have said they have extended the deadline from 5PM EDT to 8PM EDT.

7) 7/29 8:28PM ET - The deadline has been pushed again to 9PM EDT.

8 ) 7/29 9:13PM ET - The deadline has been pushed for the sixth time to 10PM EDT.

9) 7/30 2:23AM ET - It appears that for the moment CBS will remain on the Time Warner Systems in LA, NY and Dallas. Time Warner was set to pull the plug, however at the request of CBS has agreed not to for the moment. A new agreement, however still has not been reached.

10) 7/30 3:26PM ET - Well we now have a new deadline both sides have agreed to extend the deadline to 5PM ET on Aug, 2 while the negotiations continue.

11) 8/2 6:23PM ET - As of 5PM ET it looks like Time Warner has pulled CBS in Dallas, New York, And LA.

12) 8/2 9:14PM ET - Well this is getting ugly in hurry. CBS has taken the fight on-line, pulling full episode streaming for all Time Warner Broadband Customers across the US, not just those in the Blackout affected markets.

14) 8/5 10:28PM ET - Today Time Warner offered CBS two choices, 1) Take the offer they made last week or 2) We will offer CBS A La Carte and you(CBS) can keep the all the fees.

CBS Countered calling the offers a Sham, meant to distract that Time Warner was not trying to make deal in good faith

Time Warner Responded: "Now Time Warner Cable has a response to CBS’ response to TWC’s proposal to offer CBS stations on an a la carte basis: It says if the effort to revive negotiations was “sincere.” It adds: “We’re disappointed in their lack of responsiveness, particularly to our request for them to quit unfairly blocking the free content available on CBS.com from our Internet customers. We hope they will return to the table to negotiate in good faith on behalf of our customers and their viewers.”"

So it looks like it might still be a while before the two companies resolve their differences and customers affected by this CBS Blackout, can watch Big Brother or any other CBS show on there TV without and antenna.

15) 8/9 6:00PM ET - Day 8, and as of right now it looks like we are no closer to having this blackout resolved.

16) 9/2 5:27PM ET - The dispute has been resolved and CBS will return to affected Time Warner Systems, by 6PM ET

They have until Wednesday to resolve a payment dispute that threatens to take KCBS and KCAL off the TWC lineup. Also affected would be the NY and Dallas markets. CBS-owned stations currently receive between 75 cents and $1 per subscriber, but CBS, looking to bring in more revenue from re-transmission fees, is asking for roughly twice that, according to news reports. As is common in these kerfuffles, each side is lobbying for viewer support so as to pressure the other (KCAL was airing sky-is-falling notices during the Dodger game on Sunday). Actually, this is a slow-ish time for TV watching, so it wouldn't be surprising to see CBS pulling the plug, at least for a bit. It's really a numbers game: CBS has to calculate how much advertising revenue would be lost short term, while Time Warner Cable must figure out its losses from cable subscribers. Not to sound like a cliche, but the stakes are huge: Any deal with CBS could be used by other content providers in future negotiations with TWC. Overlaying the talks are other factors - TWC is shelling out huge money for its new LA sports channels; CBS is under pressure from Aereo, the startup that streams broadcast signals over the Web in NY and other markets (but not LA); and viewers are being lost to streaming services like Hulu and Netflix. There also are rumors that TWC could be sold. From the WSJ:

The companies have until Wednesday to strike a carriage deal. Otherwise, roughly three million Time Warner Cable customers in markets including New York, Los Angeles and Dallas could see CBS's flagship broadcast network disappear from their cable service. CBS's Showtime premium network would also be dropped. CBS has a lot riding on the talks. The company has told investors it plans to roughly quadruple the so-called retransmission revenue it receives from pay-TV operators to $1 billion by 2017, translating to about $1.20 to $1.25 a subscriber per month, according to analyst estimates. Are fans of CBS's "The Big Bang Theory" about to get a big surprise and see it taken off the primetime schedule? Amol Sharma has the latest on CBS's impending battle with Time Warner Cable over a new carriage agreement.

From my piece on TWC in the June issue of Los Angeles magazine:

Between 2007 and 2012, Time Warner Cable's video subscribers fell about 8 percent, or by 1 million (another 119,000 were lost during the first quarter of 2013). Profits were up 29 percent last year, though that was largely because of the company's growing Internet and phone services. TV is another story: In the past four years program fees surged 32 percent, more than three times as much as the Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation. During that time, subscription bills went up, too, but according to chief executive Glenn Britt, not enough to offset the increases paid to content providers. Britt says that the industry is going through a "complicated set of structural imbalances" that hurts consumers as well as the bottom line. "It's clear that it can't continue forever," he told analysts. "What is less clear is what will happen to change the situation or when."

CBS's Standoff With Time Warner Cable Heats Up; Blackouts Could Happen Next Week

By Tim Kenneally | The Wrap – Fri, Jul 19, 2013 1:07 PM PDT

CBS's Standoff With Time Warner Cable Heats Up; Blackouts Could Happen Next WeekView PhotoCBS's Standoff With Time Warner Cable Heats Up; Blackouts Could Happen Next Week

With a July 24 deadline looming, Wall Street analysts are warning that a standoff between CBS and Time Warner Cable could lead to a CBS blackout. The blackout could affect 3.5 million homes -- roughly 29 percent of Time Warner Cable's video subscriptions -- in Texas, New York and Los Angeles, Wells Fargo Securities analyst Marci Ryvicker noted in a report.

This would mark the first time that CBS has allowed its signal to go dark in a retransmission dispute.

An agreement struck in 2009 by the two companies expired at the end of June, and an extension is due to expire on Wednesday.

CBS declined to disclose the rates it is seeking, but analysts say that the network is seeking about $2 per subscriber, from an estimated 75 cents to $1.

The two parties are accusing each other of hardball negotiating tactics.

CBS told TheWrap in a statement that the company "remains committed to working towards a mutually agreeable contract," and accused TWC of being unwilling to negotiate the same type of deals as other transmitters.

"Time Warner Cable is planning to drop the most popular programming in its entire channel lineup because it won't negotiate the same sort of deal that all other cable, satellite and telco companies have struck with CBS," CBS said. "Time Warner Cable has dropped nearly 50 channels in the last five years. CBS has never been dropped by a cable company before."

CBS, which released an ad directed at viewers in the possibly affected areas, is directing fans to the website KeepCBS.com, which urges fans to take action against the potential blackout.

Time Warner Cable, which has released its own ad covering the dispute (see above), claims that CBS is asking for 600 percent more in the potentially affected markets -- primarily, New York, Los Angeles and Dallas -- than TWC pays for the content in other areas. TWC calls that request "unprecedented."

"CBS wants Time Warner Cable to pay over 600 percent more than we pay in other areas from coast to coast for the same programming," Time Warner Cable said. "It's unreasonable to expect our subscribers and Time Warner Cable to pay that price and we are negotiating very hard for a reasonable price. This is not a standard debate over price increases. This is different. CBS's demand for a 600 percent premium is unprecedented."

"We're going to continue to negotiate and hope to come to a reasonable resolution before our deadline, so that our customers don't have to endure yet another broadcaster blackout," TWC added.

We've heard the threat before: your favorite shows are being held hostage. This time, the dispute is between Time Warner Cable and CBS.

Time Warner Cable (TWC, Fortune 500) claims that CBS (CBS, Fortune 500) is demanding a big rate hike for cable customers in major cities. The cable giant says the fees will amount to 600% more than customers in other parts of the country will pay.

If the two companies do not soon come to an agreement about the fees, CBS could block Time Warner Cable customers from watching the channel and hit shows like "Under the Dome," "NCIS" and "The Big Bang Theory."

On Tuesday, the two companies extended the deadline to a 9 a.m. Thursday. This is the second time the self-imposed deadline has been extended since the contract between Time Warner Cable and CBS over the fee expired earlier this year.

Cable companies and satellite providers typically pay broadcasters "retransmission fees" in order to air the network's programming. It's not always the national networks like CBS, Fox (FOX), Disney's (DIS, Fortune 500) ABC and Comcast's (CMCSA) NBC, that Time Warner Cable must negotiate with -- the cable provider has to agree to terms with all the various local affiliate stations to carry the national networks' content in each metropolitan area, many of which are owned by companies other than the big broadcasters.

That's where the latest round of deal-making is getting held up: CBS is currently negotiating on behalf of the several local affiliate networks it owns outright, and Time Warner Cable argues that CBS is demanding fees that are much larger than the fees it pays to other independent local stations that carry CBS shows.

Some analysts think CBS is holding most of the cards, given it attracted more viewers than any other network last season, as it has done 10 times in the past 11 years.

But BTIG's Richard Greenfield wrote in a analyst note Monday that "CBS is overestimating its leverage in this battle." The network will not begin showing its new fall lineup until late September, two months from now, and the network's next major national sports event, the U.S. Open Tennis Championship, will not air until September 8.

Customers in New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit and Denver could be affected, according to Time Warner Cable. But customers in other areas of the country are not in jeopardy of losing the CBS channel.

CBS has been running TV commercials warning customers of the negotiations and that "Time Warner Cable is threatening to hold your favorite shows hostage."

"Time Warner Cable is planning to drop the most popular programming in its entire channel lineup because it won't negotiate the same sort of deal that all other cable, satellite and telco companies have struck with CBS," the company said in a prepared statement. "CBS remains committed to working towards a mutually agreeable contract."

Time Warner Cable spokeswoman Maureen Huff said that the company's executives are also hoping to reach a fair agreement.

"We are willing to pay for CBS, and we have offered them significant fees," Huff said. "But their current demands don't represent a good value for our customers."

NEW YORK, July 23 (Reuters) - Millions of Time Warner Cable customers will get an extra day to watch CBS shows before the companies' programming agreement expires in large markets such as New York and Los Angeles, both companies confirmed on Tuesday.

The deadline to hammer out a new agreement between Time Warner Cable, the second largest U.S. cable operator, and CBS, the No. 1 rated broadcast network, has been moved to Thursday at 9 a.m. EDT from Wednesday at 5 p.m. EDT.

The deadline was extended not because there was any progress in talks but because of a technicality related to U.S. Federal Communications Commission rule about pulling signals during a "sweeps" period, according to a source familiar with the matter.

CBS Corp Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves issued a memo to employees on Tuesday over the programming fight with Time Warner Cable that threatens to pull popular shows like "The Big Bang Theory" off the air in several major markets.

Threats of blackouts have become increasingly common in the TV business as networks, which provide programming, and cable operators, which transmit that content into living rooms around the country, battle over terms in contentious negotiations.

The negotiations over how much Time Warner Cable will pay CBS to carry the network in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas are stalled, according to the memo.

"We have offered Time Warner Cable a short-term extension as we continue to negotiate, but to date they have refused," Moonves wrote in the memo, calling the fight a "crucial struggle."

A Time Warner Cable spokeswoman said in response that it had not refused an offer and "we'd be happy to consider an extension offer, but right now we want to continue to negotiate to try to reach an agreement before the expiration."

For several quarters Moonves has trumpeted retransmission fees - an industry term for how much cable, satellite and telecommunications operators pay broadcast networks to carry the channel - which bring in sizable revenue. CBS has said it is on track to generate $1 billion in these types of fees by 2017.

Time Warner Cable Threatens to Take Coveted Channel 2 Slot Away From CBS

1:50 PM PDT 7/24/2013 by Alex Ben Block

As the tense talks over retransmission fees continue toward the Thursday deadline, the network says it will not make any deal that doesn’t maintain their position.

Tense negotiations on a new retransmission consent deal between Time Warner Cable and CBS Inc. continued Wednesday but all indications are it is still unlikely there will be an agreement before the 9 a.m. deadline on Thursday because the parties are still so far apart on the value of the subscriber fees.

In the latest maneuver, Time Warner Cable says that if they black out CBS on their systems until a deal is made, they may auction off the coveted channel two slot on their program lineup – making it permanently unavailable.

Historically, the lower the slot on the line up the better. Typically, when a TV set is turned on, a viewer begins looking for something to watch at the default point of a channel lower on the line up.

A spokesperson for TWC told The Wall Street Journal, “if CBS goes dark, they likely lose their space on the (channel) lineup” permanently in the markets most affected by these talks – New York City, Los Angeles and Dallas/Ft. Worth.

CBS appears to be taking that as an effort by TWC to gain leverage in the talks. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, a CBS spokesperson said: “CBS obviously won’t be making any deals in which we are required to change our channel position.”

On background, sources at TWC and CBS confirmed it does not look likely a new deal will be reached before the current deadline. That means CBS stations, CBS Sports and the Smithsonian Chanel may all go dark. There is also a chance it could force CBS owned pay TV service Showtime to go dark as well.

CBS has offered a short-term extension of the deadline while talks continue but so far TWC has declined that offer. Sources say TWC wants a deal as soon as possible because each day that passes gets them closer to September 5 when NFL football on CBS resumes. A blackout of the games is expected to anger football fans who are TWC subscribers.

The next major sports event scheduled to air on CBS is the U.S. Open tennis tournament, which begins August 26 and runs until September 9.

David Banks, a Wall St. analyst with the firm RBC Capital Markets, said in an interview on CNBC that ultimately CBS has the stronger negotiating position because “typically in this business it’s the content that wins … content has the leverage.”

During the interview, a graphic based on data from SNL Kagan showed that ESPN gets $5.54 per subscriber per month from cable operators while TNT gets $1.24, Fox News gets 94 cents and CBS gets 88 cents per sub.

Banks said we have entered an era where these retrans fees are being “re-valued.”

“I think CBS has a great case,” said Banks, “because of their audience level and program investment.”

Banks said today the economics of media are that advertising and subscriber revenue are needed to afford a menu of quality programming.

Another issue is the terms of the deal. In August 2010, CBS did a ten-year deal with Comcast on retransmission fees. The longer the deal, usually the more the cable distributor has to pay for that long-term peace of mind.

In the case of the Comcast deal, Banks said -- and company sources confirmed -- CBS would be asking for a lot more money if that was being negotiated today.

CBS CEO Leslie Moonves has said they now want full value for their content and think it is wrong that they get the higher ratings but are paid less than many others, such as TNT, who can’t match their offerings.

At a Bank of America conference in September 2012, Moonves recalled the history of retransmission revenue. Three years ago, he said, CBS was receiving no retransmission cash. Five years ago, the network was paying its affiliates to carry CBS programming. In 2012, he estimated cable, satellite and telco TV distributors will pay CBS more than $250 million in retransmission fees.

Moonves at that time said CBS expects those feels to reach $1 billiion by 2016.

“People are realizing the value of our content,” Moonves said at the time. “They can’t live without the things we provide — the NFL, CSI, Two and a Half Men, Big Bang Theory, 60 Minutes. So our affiliates and our (cable) partners realize they need to pay. The ecosystem has changed dramatically.”

(Reuters) - Time Warner Cable Inc, which is battling with the CBS broadcast network over the fees it pays to carry certain CBS channels, said the companies will continue negotiating until Monday.

"Both parties have agreed to an extension through Monday, July 29 at 5 p.m.," Time Warner Cable spokeswoman Maureen Huff told Reuters late on Wednesday.

If both the companies had failed to reach a new deal by Thursday, CBS would have gone dark in markets like Los Angeles and New York, depriving viewers of summer shows such as "Under the Dome" and "Big Brother."

CBS officials could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside of regular U.S. business hours.

Time Warner Cable postponed the drop-dead date in its contract fight with CBS to Monday, but a separate dispute with Journal Broadcast Group resulted in a blackout of CBS and NBC stations in four markets around midnight local time Thursday.

TW Cable said more than 600,000 of customers are affected. Its retransmission-consent deal with Journal Broadcast had been set to expire June 30, but the companies extended pact through July 24 for four stations: WTMJ (NBC) in Milwaukee; WGBA (NBC) in Green Bay, Wisc.; KMTV (CBS) in Omaha, Neb.; and KMIR (NBC) in Palm Springs, Calif.

The MSO did not provide an estimate on when it expected to reach a deal with Milwaukee-based Journal Broadcast. The cable company has claimed the broadcaster is seeking a 200% fee hike, while the Journal Broadcast characterizes the increase as just pennies per day per subscriber.

“At Time Warner Cable, we continue to take a stand against such unreasonable fee increases because we don’t think it’s fair for customers to pay such a huge increase for programming that is delivered for free via an antenna, and online,” the cable company said in a notice posted at TWCConversations.com.

Journal Broadcast Group said in a statement that it is “deeply disappointed to announce that Time Warner Cable has put aside the needs of our local viewers and taken our stations off their systems serving the Milwaukee, Green Bay/Appleton, Omaha and Palm Springs DMAs… We stand ready to return to the bargaining table to resolve our differences and resume serving the Time Warner Cable customers in our markets.”

Time Warner Cable’s higher-profile clash with CBS covers 13 owned-and-operated stations, including WCBS in Gotham, KCBS in LA and KTVT in Dallas. Also covered in that pact are carriage of CBS cablers Showtime, CBS Sports Network and Smithsonian Channel.

TW Cable on July 10 dropped two low-power Journal Broadcast stations affiliated with MyNetwork TV, WACY in Green Bay and WPSE in Palm Springs. The NBC and CBS stations stayed on Time Warner Cable under an FCC rule that forbids commercial stations to be removed during the sweeps ratings period.

According to Journal Broadcast, the station group has successfully negotiated more than 140 retrans contracts with other distributors without any interruption in service.

As has been the case in other broadcast blackouts, Time Warner Cable said affected customers could continue to access NBC shows on video-on-demand within 24 hours of original broadcast, and it noted that CBS primetime programming is available free at CBS.com – and also provided instructions on how to set up an over-the-air antenna.

In addition, the operator pointed out that many primetime programs are via online streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon.com, Hulu.com or may be purchased at Apple’s iTunes Store.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - CBS Corp Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said on Monday he remained engaged in "difficult" negotiations with Time Warner Cable Inc (NYSE: TWC - news) ahead of an afternoon deadline to agree on fees the cable company pays to carry the broadcast network.

Moonves, speaking at a Television Critics Association meeting, said he hoped to reach an agreement and avoid a blackout of the highest-rated broadcaster on cable systems in markets such as New York and Los Angeles.

Should no deal be reached, the blackout would occur some time after Monday's 5 p.m. EDT deadline.

"It's a very difficult negotiation," he said at the meeting in Beverly Hills. "We feel like we should be paid for our programming."

"I hope we don't go dark," he added.

Last week, the two sides agreed to extend their talks until 5 p.m. EDT on Monday, keeping CBS and summer hits like "Big Brother" and "Under the Dome" on the air.

A Time Warner Cable spokeswoman said in response that CBS is "already paid for their programming and we've offered an increase in CBS fees. We hope don't go dark as well."

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — A dispute with Time Warner Cable was unresolved as a deadline loomed involving the availability of stations in three major markets, CBS Corp. chief executive Les Moonves said Monday.

If it's not settled, six CBS TV stations could go dark for around 3 million Time Warner Cable customers in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas.

CBS Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. are in the public spat over fees in the markets.

Moonves told the Television Critics Association the deadline to resolve the dispute was 5 p.m. EDT Monday. Later, both companies said they extended the deadline to 8 p.m. EDT.

The disagreement centers mainly on how much Time Warner Cable pays for the right to retransmit signals from the CBS-owned stations.

Also involved is a possible blackout of CBS-owned Showtime for Time Warner Cable customers nationwide who pay extra for it.

Discussions were continuing and Moonves said he hopes the stations don't go dark.

"As we've said, we feel like we should be paid for our programming," he said. He declined to offer further details, saying he didn't want to negotiate in public.

Dozens of blackouts have occurred nationwide in fee fights over the years, but many get resolved at the last minute.

Selling retransmission rights has become a big business for broadcasters such as CBS. Research firm SNL Kagan estimates retransmission fees will reach $3 billion industrywide this year and double to $6 billion by 2018.

Time Warner Cable has said it's resisting a fee hike demand by CBS so prices don't go up for customers. CBS said Time Warner Cable isn't agreeing to terms that its competitors have accepted.

If the fight continues, some Time Warner Cable customers could lose access to new episodes of "Under the Dome" and the 15th season of "Big Brother." Both are available online after a slight delay.

Clicking the link below will take you the update version of the article reflecting the new 10PM EDT deadline...

CBS/Time Warner Cable talks go down to the wire

By Melanie Hicken

Time Warner Cable and CBS are going down to the wire to settle a dispute that could result in a blackout for millions of Time Warner Cable customers across the country.

The companies have been battling in recent weeks over the "transmission fee" that Time Warner Cable pays to run CBS-owned stations, including network affiliates in major cities like New York and Los Angeles, and CBS-owned pay channel Showtime, according to the cable provider.

CBS (CBS, Fortune 500) has threatened to yank its programming from Time Warner Cable (TWC, Fortune 500) customers in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas if an agreement is not reached. It could also potentially affect Time Warner Cable's Showtime subscribers across the country, according to Time Warner Cable spokeswoman Maureen Huff.

On Monday evening, the companies extended the deadline for talks to 9 p.m. ET from 8 p.m. It was the fifth deadline extension over the past month since the former contract expired on June 30.

Huff said that negotiations remained "ongoing and active." CBS declined to comment beyond a statement that the deadline had been extended while negotiations continued.

If the two companies don't reach an agreement, Time Warner Cable customers could be blocked from viewing CBS programs, including hit shows like "NCIS," "The Big Bang Theory" and this summer's "Under the Dome."

Although TV networks tend to attract fewer viewers in the summer season, "Under the Dome" has topped the ratings list, attracting more viewers than any other show last Monday night.

In response, Time Warner Cable has claimed that CBS is demanding too high a rate -- 600% more than what the cable provider has to pay for the network's programming in other parts of the country. In those areas, Time Warner Cable negotiates with local CBS affiliates that are not owned outright by the network.

UPDATE: CBS And Time Warner Cable Fail To Reach Agreement, But Stations Stay Up For Now

UPDATE: Hold on. Time Warner Cable now says that “At the request of CBS, we have halted going dark on their channels.” WCBS is still on in the TWC system in New York. CBS says that the companies “have agreed to continue discussions” — shortly after it accused TWC of being “incapable of accepting the concept that the value of a company’s programming should be in line with its popularity.”

It almost looks like Time Warner blinked. Generally they tend to come up with some sort of agreement with the networks and networks with TW but it doesn't seem that they are close to an agreement right now. A few months ago it went down to the wire with NBC and TW here in Austin but was resolved before it got to this point.

Time Warner Cable Drops CBS Network From Lineup Long-Running Negotiations Between the Companies Failed to Reach a Deal on Fees

By SHALINI RAMACHANDRAN

CBS Corp.'s CBS -0.64%flagship broadcast network was dropped from Time Warner Cable Inc.'s TWC -0.49%TV service in New York, Los Angeles and other major markets Friday after long-running negotiations between the companies failed to reach a deal on fees.

The blackout, that started at 5 p.m. Eastern time, came more than a month after a previous agreement between CBS and Time Warner Cable expired, although it had been extended several times to allow negotiations on a new deal.

The two companies have been negotiating over fees to be paid by Time Warner Cable for the right to carry CBS programming. In a statement, CBS accused Time Warner Cable of negotiating "in a combative and nonproductive spirit…while maintaining antiquated positions no longer held by any other programming distributor in the business."

Time Warner Cable said in a statement that "CBS has refused to have a productive discussion" over the past few days. "It's become clear that no matter how much time we give them, they're not willing to come to reasonable terms," it said.

About three million subscribers were expected to be affected by a blackout, which covers CBS Corp.'s Showtime premium channel as well as CBS.

Time Warner Cable has accused CBS of demanding fees in certain big cities much higher than what the cable operator pays in other areas of the country. CBS had said that Time Warner Cable was refusing to negotiate deals at parity to what other cable, satellite and telecom companies had struck with CBS.

The dispute highlights growing tensions between TV channel owners and distributors. Pay-TV operators have argued that the fees demanded by broadcast networks, known as "retransmission fees," are increasing their programming costs. Those fees have become increasingly important to broadcasters such as CBS, which has said it expects retransmission revenue to roughly quadruple to $1 billion a year by 2017, helping diversify broadcasters' revenue away from a heavy reliance on advertising.

Generally, both sides and consumers lose during a blackout. Cable and satellite operators see subscriber defections and television channels suffer steep declines in ratings. Last year, Viacom Inc.'s channels such as MTV and Nickelodeon were blacked out on DirecTV's satellite TV service for nine days in a fee dispute.

Time Warner Cable has warned that it could put another network into CBS's channel slot permanently after a blackout. The cable operator said last week it was in talks with several programmers to take the slot.

The war between CBS and Time Warner Cable intensified Friday afternoon when the cable company pulled the CBS stations in the New York, Los Angeles and Dallas markets.

CBS suspended the service around 5 p.m. Eastern time. Both sides then issued statements blaming the other for being unreasonable in the negotiations, which were extended from Monday.

The decision means that viewers in those cities that subscribe to Time Warner Cable will not be able to watch CBS programming until a deal is reached. In the past, subscribers have reacted with anger at such suspensions, but generally because they have missed specific programs. In this case, the summer programming roster does not contain many highly popular shows that may drive a settlement. CBS’s biggest appeal this summer is from the show “Under the Dome,” which will not have a new episode until Monday.

But the network does have the PGA golf championship coming in a week. Further down the road is the NFL season, which would surely stir outrage if viewers were denied access to the games.

CBS called the action “ill-advised” and “injurious not only to our many affected viewers, but also to Time Warner Cable itself.”

Time Warner Cable followed with its own statement, saying, “CBS has refused to have a productive discussion. It’s become clear that no matter how much time we give them, they’re not willing to come to reasonable terms.”

CBS also used tough language in its statement, saying the cable company had “conducted negotiations in a combative and nonproductive spirit, indulging in pointless brinkmanship and distorted public positioning.” CBS labeled Time Warner Cable’s charge that CBS was seeking a 600 percent fee increase as “fictional and ridiculous.”

Well this is getting ugly in hurry. CBS has taken the fight on-line, pulling full episode streaming for all Time Warner Broadband Customers across the US, not just those in the Blackout affected markets...

CBS Blocks Time Warner Cable Internet Users from Full Episodes Online

By Todd Spangler

The TV dispute between CBS and Time Warner Cable extended to online video Friday, as the Eye blocked all the operator’s broadband customers from accessing full episodes on CBS.com and mobile apps.

CBS-owned local TV stations went dark in several Time Warner Cable markets Friday, including New York, L.A. and Dallas, and the cable operator removed Showtime and three other cable nets.

TW Cable broadband customers across the MSO’s entire U.S. who attempt to access content on CBS.com now see a message that the videos are unavailable.

“If Time Warner Cable is a customer’s Internet service provider, then their access to CBS full episode content via online and mobile platforms has been suspended as a result of Time Warner Cable’s decision to drop CBS and Showtime from their market,” CBS spokesman Dan McClintock said in an email. “As soon as CBS is restored on Time Warner Cable systems in affected markets, that content will be accessible again.”

Time Warner Cable, in a statement, said, “CBS has shown utter lack of regard for consumers by blocking Time Warner Cable’s customers, including our high-speed data only customers, from accessing their shows on their free website. CBS enjoys the privilege of using public owned airwaves to deliver their programming — they should not be allowed to abuse that privilege.”